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| Richard Blumenthal |
Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal, who is probing the merger of Saudi Arabia’s LIV Golf with the PGA Tour, wants to know what role Teneo played in the transaction.
In his Aug. 16 letter to Teneo CEO Paul Keary, Blumenthal demands a “detailed list” of engagements between Teneo and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and the names of staffers who worked with the PIF.
The Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations found that Stephen Cohen, Teneo’s senior managing director, participated in meetings on June 5-6 prior to the announcement of the planned agreement between the PGA Tour and PIF to form a new corporate entity in professional golf.
Prior to joining Teneo, Cohen was a VP at Goldman Sachs and worked with the PR team that helped it emerge from the global financial meltdown. He also was senior VP in Citigroup’s corporate affairs department and a reporter for Bloomberg.
Blumenthal also wants any Teneo documents concerning PIF’s future role in other US sports.
The Democrat also sent letters to the heads of McKinsey & Co., M. Klein & Co. and Boston Consulting Group.
A.T. Kearney has an agreement to provide Invest India with knowledge support for organizational redesign and strategy formulation services.
Kellyanne Conway, a top aide to President Donald Trump, has agreed to represent a Ukrainian oligarch, who is a strong opponent of Russia’s invasion of his country. Her firm is in line for $50K a month.
Prosek Partners has signed on to provide communications and PR support for the Future Investment Initiative Institute, which organizes the annual “Davos in the Desert” each October in Riyadh.
Ruder Finn has a verbal agreement to support Saudi Arabia Ministry of Defense PR efforts in the US and other countries.
Qatar has hired Palm Beach’s Montfort Advisory for public diplomacy duties, which includes advice on what US civic associations to support and which charitable events to sponsor and attend.
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Aug. 23, 2023, by Joe Honick
Missing from all the commentary about the Saudis and the PGA is any recognition of the reality American PR firms and just about those from everywhere else are quite happy to take their money and sell whatever they want sold. Additional problem is that both Democrats and Republicans for generations have known how cheaply those folks in Ryadh consider life and have paid off terrorists to keep the peace there, as Hillary exposed and took a lot of grief for doing so without any backup from Obama. So, while we read outstanding articles right here about "principal and ethics", we are really right back when we knew American ad and PR firms were doing talented work for Russia long before Putin and may still be doing so. Ironically, the representation for whatever the Saudis do is among our most bipartisan activities. Too bad such cooperation cannot seem to occur where it's really needed.